The present invention relates generally to a structural element for locking a horizontally movable drawer.
Drawers for storing paper are generally well known in the document handling art, and typically include multiple drawers. Because each drawer may store paper of various size, for operator convenience, the prior art drawers typically lack some type of drawer interlock mechanism that will permit only one of the drawers to be opened at any given time.
In the furniture cabinet art, many different interlock systems have been developed in an attempt to economically, yet reliably, interlock the drawers on vertical cabinets. However, such prior art mechanisms are not readily adapted to the rigorous document registration requirements in the document handling field. Drawers may create error conditions, such as paper jams, if the center line of multiple drawers are not maintained in proper alignment.
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an interlock mechanism for multiple drawers in a document handling system.
Further, it is an object of the subject invention to provide means for adjusting drawer alignment to meet document registration requirements.